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Now are most of the names mentioned a single blacksmith that does all the work or is it a small shop with a few people or are they companies or brands that produce the knives.

it's a combination - big brands like masamoto, suisin, and konosuke use smiths and sharpeners from multiple places and shuffle materials around to get everything done in a consistent way (with some exceptions that have individual identifiable craftsmen in their lines), and are really mostly just brand houses with little craftsman individuality (exceptions noted). I think konosuke is better known as a different brand in japan (kaneshige). Takeda is a one stop shop, but I think employs several folks so even then you're not necessarily getting a single craftsman-made knife. But there are certainly the individual craftsmen that are both forging and sharpening, sometimes with their sons helping - Osamu Takeishi (Heiji), Kiyoshi Kato (Yoshiaki Fujiwara), and Tokifusa Iizuka (shigefusa) come to mind (although even these guys may be employing assistants, etc).

And that's why it's so complicated to run a list of the "best knifemakers"...